You Look Familiar
by Sachie Yoritomo
Summary: When a group of demons invades a supposedly empty part of Spirit World, the global rate of stillbirths skyrockets and the Spirit Detective team is sent to investigate; but when they return, they come home with more than they ever bargained for. T for Violence; HxB; inspired by the music of Shadow of the Colossus.


_"In truth, spirit world is a complex system of many different worlds..." Kurama, The Dark Tournament_

* * *

"You'd better get going Botan," Koenma said. "You'll have to track them all down and convince them to come with you by tomorrow morning. We just can't put this off any longer."

"Understood sir," Botan replied wearily as she materialized her oar and flew out of his office, through some corridors, out of the castle and through the clouds to the human world.

Koenma sighed. He knew that he was working his detectives extra hard lately, and that they deserved a break- they'd had four cases in the last two weeks alone- and he knew that they wouldn't be happy with him when they arrived; but he also knew that the situation that had developed on the Styx Highlands could no longer be ignored. Not much was known about the Highlands, a fact that had irritated Koenma as he poured over Intelligence's records as he decided whether or not to send in his best team.

A single expedition had been mounted about three thousand years previous, and they had reported that aside from dry grassland, intermittent forestation and a few large piles of rock, the region was empty and had no obvious signs of habitation. The expedition report hinted that there was a curious orb cemented in one of the rock piles, but when they failed to extract it, they assumed to be of no value and it was left as is and no other outcrops were explored. The Highlands were deemed not to be useful or even particularly interesting to the Spirit World, and after the expedition returned, they were all but forgotten about.

In all likelihood, the Highlands would never have been paid any mind if a gang of modestly powerful demons hadn't made their way to the region- an incident, which, in and of itself, didn't require the involvement of Yusuke and the others and would have been handled by other Spirit World Security. The preliminary report said that these demons were after the orb, apparently because of a rumor that claimed the orb- and the others like it, which were supposedly all in the Highlands- was to have strange powers. This, too, would have not been quite severe enough to involve Yusuke and the others, except that as soon as the first artifact was disturbed, the worldwide rate of stillbirths skyrocketed. Fearing what would happen if the demon gang were to find and take the rest of the artifacts, the Spirit Detective and company were called in to hunt down and destroy the demons, replace the artifact, and secure any others.

* * *

It was early on Friday morning when Botan entered the Human World. She knew she had to act fast to get all four of "her boys", as she mentally called them, rounded up and ready to go by morning. Her plan of attack was thus: she'd start the morning by telling Yusuke and Kuwabara that Koenma had another mission for them and to meet her in the usual place after school, then try to get to Kurama's school and try to get him alone for long enough to tell him the same thing (getting past his fan girl entourage was difficult enough), and then, if all went well, she'd have the entire afternoon to track down Hiei and bribe him to come along again. Realistically, she knew that she'd likely have to bribe all four of them, but she was hopeful, even confident, that the seriousness of the situation would motivate most of them.

She set off for Sariyashiki junior high, and made it there in time to change into her uniform before the bell rang. She made her way to the rooftop, confident that she would find Yusuke there rather than in class, and she wasn't disappointed, finding him lounging spread-eagled on the roof of the stairs, and apparently napping.

Yusuke groaned when he saw her.

"What's the matter Yusuke, you act like you're not happy to see me," she quipped cheerfully at him.

"You got that right!" he spat back angrily. "Keiko is already pissed at how much school I've missed this month because of these missions of Koenma's, and I'm downright tired. Tell him to go take care of it himself," he said gruffly, rolling over and trying to ignore her.

"Yes, and I see you're working hard to make up for lost time," Botan said, giggling. He opened one eye and glared at her. "I know that you've all worked very hard lately Yusuke," she said, suddenly very serious, "and believe me when I say that Koenma really didn't want to bring you in on this case, but he had no choice."

"Right," Yusuke said skeptically.

She glanced at her watch- she didn't have time to argue with him this morning- and sighed. "Listen, I promise I'll explain everything in detail when we get everyone together this afternoon," she said. "Will you bring Kuwabara with you?"

Yusuke didn't respond, and she knew this was her cue to make him an offer. "I'll tell you what Yusuke, if you come I'll be sure to forget to mention to Keiko how you skipped class again to nap up on the roof, even though you promised you'd be a good student," she said slyly, turning away from him.

"Ah! You wouldn't!" Yusuke called after her, sitting up.

"There's only one way for you to find out, isn't there?" she replied, looking over her shoulder. Yusuke grumbled and she smiled, knowing that she had been successful. "See you this afternoon!" she said cheerfully, jumping down from the roof and heading inside.

* * *

She managed to get out of Sariyashiki without being seen by any teachers by 9:30, which she considered a modest success. Kurama's school was about a half an hour's walk from Yusuke and Kuwabara's, and since it was the middle of the day she'd have to do just that. Koenma would have her hide if she went flying around on her oar in the middle of rush hour. It didn't matter too much; Kurama's school had already started, and unlike Yusuke, she could count on him to actually be in his classes. That meant that the earliest that she could catch up to him would be at noon, when his class had lunch. Since it was a nice day, odds were high that he would eat on the lawn reading a book instead of with the rest of his class.

She took her time getting there, deciding to take a short shopping detour since she normally spent so little time in the Human World, and arrived at 11:45. At 12:02, Kurama emerged from the building and made his way over to the tree she was sitting under. "Well hello Botan," he said warmly. "I take it there's news from Spirit World?" he asked, sitting next to her.

"I'm afraid so," she replied.

He frowned slightly, sighed, and said, "I'm sure you'll be telling us all this afternoon what's going on, but do you mind giving me the short version?"

Botan shook her head. "I figured you'd say something like that," she said, "considering all the work you guys have been doing lately. A demon gang has entered the Spirit World and seems to have taken an artifact that influences life here in the Human World very much," she said. "Almost immediately after we detected them, the number of stillbirths around the world increased 15 fold literally overnight, and we're concerned they're connected. Koenma wants his best people on the case so it gets cleared up right away," she said.

After a short pause, Kurama said, "Have you spoken to Hiei yet?"

She shook her head. "No," she said. "He's next on my list. If I have any trouble with him I'll be back in a couple of hours to get you," she finished, rising and brushing off her skirt.

Kurama smiled up at her reassuringly. "His bark is worse than his bite," he said blithely. "He talks a good game about how he's babysitting all of us, but I do think he enjoys our missions on some level," he said.

She smiled at him. "Thanks for the pep talk, Kurama," she said sincerely, and she walked away.

* * *

Botan made here way from Kurama's school towards an upscale ice cream parlor on the edge of the park where Hiei made his home. In the last several months, she'd had a lot of opportunities to learn how best to bribe Hiei. She knew that what he wanted most of all was to be free of working for Koenma and free to roam about as he pleased, but she didn't have the power to promise him a shorter probation period or a greater range to move about in and Koenma was certainly not going to let one of their best fighters go so easily. Instead, she'd found that the old saying 'a way to a man's heart is through his stomach' to be some of the best advice she'd ever heard, and had discovered that Hiei had a particularly sweet tooth, and a curious fondness for what he called "sweet snow". She entered the store, which was empty, and bought a small cone and a large bowl with all the toppings. She made her way to the park and sat on a bench that was in the sunshine. She placed the large bowl of ice cream on the bench beside her and stuck a spoon in it. She glanced down at her watch, and decided to give him 3 minutes to come peacefully before she pulled out her whistle and made him. She knew full well that he had known as soon as she stepped foot into the Human World- somehow he always did- and she also knew that he knew precisely where she was and, more likely than not, precisely why she was there.

_'This is your 2 minute warning, Hiei,'_ she thought, in case he was listening. _'I didn't buy you expensive ice cream to let it melt out here.'_

While she waited, she couldn't help but smirk at her own genius. This bench in the park is where Yusuke, Kurama and Kuwabara would be meeting her in just a few hours. She had made this their meeting spot when, after several attempts at getting Hiei to meet with the rest of the team, she had found it much easier to bring them to him. The system she'd developed for situations just like today gave her plenty of time to look for him, bribe him with some kind of treat, and otherwise argue with him about if he was coming on their mission before everyone else arrived. Sometimes she had to convince him that going on a particular mission was in his best interest, but it had been a long time since she had had to threaten to have Yusuke put him back in jail.

The ice cream next to her disappeared off the park bench, and she looked up to find it in the hands of a grumpy looking Hiei. "Is it butter brickle this time?" he asked gruffly.

"Yes," she replied, "and it has everything you like in it too."

"Hn. So I take it Koenma's looking for a babysitter again," he said, shoveling a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth.

"There's another mission for you boys, yes," she replied. "In Spirit World this time- a gang of demons has been causing trouble in the Highlands."

"Hn."

"It sounds like these demons are after some sort of artifacts, but that's about all I know so far. Spirit World Intelligence hasn't been very helpful this time," she said, licking her ice cream cone.

Hiei snorted and almost choked on a mouthful of butter brickle.

Normally she would have defended Spirit World from his mental derision, but on this particular occasion she had to agree with him. The fact of the matter was that Spirit World Intelligence had really dropped the ball this time, and with only a crude map to guide them, they were going to have a very difficult time on this mission.

Hiei seemed to have read her thoughts, for he didn't inquire further on the nature of the mission and the pair fell into a brief silence. Botan finished her small ice cream cone and looked at her watch- 2:40- and sighed. The other boys would be arriving around 3:15. She looked up at Hiei and said, "Better eat your ice cream. They'll be here soon."

"Hn," he replied, and flitted away. Botan wasn't worried, though. He'd eavesdrop from a nearby tree when the rest of the boys arrived or maybe even join in on the conversation. She stretched and stood up, then made her way out of the park and to a busy cafe nearby, where she changed back into her kimono, and returned to the park bench.

She arrived to see Yusuke and Kuwabara sitting and joking, and she could see Hiei sitting in the tree above them, looking greatly peeved. Kurama was not long behind, and he joined his friends on the bench.

"So, what you got for us this time, Botan?" asked Kuwabara.

"Yeah, and it had better be really freaking good to get me to miss this weekend," Yusuke chimed in.

"Okay boys, so here's the skinny," she began. "A demon gang has invaded a part of the Spirit World known as the Styx Highlands, which as far as we know, is empty. Nothing lives out there, unless you count the grass and trees. It was explored a few thousand years ago," she said, pulling a copy of the map from her kimono sleeve, "and they found a strange orb stuck in a pile of rocks. I guess they must have decided it was just a weird rock, because they left it there and didn't check to see if there were any more. Anyway, a rumor got started in the Demon World that there were many orbs like this and when brought together they have a great power, and that's why they've decided to go after them," Botan continued.

"So lemme get this straight," Yusuke interrupted. "Koenma wants us to go find and fight some demons that are after orbs that might have super powers but might actually just be plain old rocks, and you don't know how many there are or even where they are?"

"Well, yes, sort of," Botan replied, and the group groaned. "Let me continue," she said, "because we certainly wouldn't have involved you if we weren't pretty sure they were more than just plain old rocks.

"The demons entered Spirit World about a week ago, and we've been able to monitor them from their demon energy. Three days ago they showed up right where we think this outcrop is," she said, pointing at the map, "and there was a disturbance in Spirit World, something of an earthquake, you might say. Since then, the number of still births world wide is 15 times what it was before," she said.

"Whoa!" said Kuwabara.

"Just in the last 3 days?" exclaimed Yusuke.

Botan nodded. "Like I was saying," she continued, "We're pretty sure it wasn't just an ordinary rock. We aren't sure what it is, what it really does or how many more there are," she said seriously, "but right now our goal is to stop the demons causing all this trouble first and ask questions second," she finished.

"When do we leave?" asked Kurama.

"First thing tomorrow morning. I know that doesn't leave much time for you to say goodbye and make your excuses, but time is of the essence," she said. The team exchanged a grim look, and then she continued. "You three had better be off. You could be gone for quite a while, so be sure to take care of your affairs as best you can before you go, and try to get a good night's sleep," she said and then materialized her oar. "See you in the morning!" she called, and then she flew away.

* * *

Aw yeah, guess who's back! This girl. I'll be putting the chapters up as soon as I finish them. I'd like to give a shout out to my wonderful husband who proofreads for me, but if you see anything we missed (probably because of the cats), just let me know!

~S


End file.
